Good morning all. I'm a Top Pro, and have been for the past two years since I first became eligible. Unless something unforseen happens in the next few weeks, I'll receive my third straight/back to back Top Pro award. How do I do it? It's 4 am as I started writing this so forgive my typos and grammer. I provide roof and exterior cleaning services (roof stains, moss, lichen, etc.) #1) I have never had lowball prices. I don't overcharge, but people understand that sometimes a lower price is not always the best value. I provide excellent service, better than most, and charge roughly the same as everybody else, yet I win a high percentage of the bids that I choose to respond to, and I'm far from a fast talking smooth salesman. 2) New companies really shouldn't provide "new guy" pricing. Your equipment is new, and was a big out of pocket expense, and you do not get "new guy" prices when you buy insurance, put gas in your truck, buy equipment and so on, so a "new guy" may offer a "new guy" price to get a review or two, but if you do good work, you can easily win fair priced quotes. 2) Thumbtack likes to limit my response to customers to <1,500 characters, so I frequently send a follow up message with more detailed information. 3) No matter how much Thumbtack tries to force me to give a quote in my first response (I wish they would stop that), I cannot provide a quote without seeing the job first becaues there are too many variables, so I explain these variables. For example, roof cleaning costs vary based on the size of the roof, pitch of the roof, degree of staining and amount of lichen and moss growing on the roof, if the roof has gutters or not, and the general difficulty of the roof design, number of stories off the ground, so no Thumbtack, I cannot provide a quote based soley on a customer saying their in a single story home with 2,000-3,000 sq. ft. of surface to be cleaned. 4) There are many professionals (even Top Pro's) that are in my field of work that perform their roof cleaning services using a pressure washer which is 100% against the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association's (ARMA) Technical Bulletin. If you have technical documents that can guide customers away from harmful practices that competitors use, share them. Make sure to provide information to protect your customers from harmful practices. This not only adds to your perceived honesty, it protects your customers and weeds out companies that are willing to use harmful practices at the customers expense to make a buck. 4) It sounds cliche', but treat customers like family. Be OCD in attention to detail. Take the time to write out what steps you take that make you stand out. Explain any warranties or guarantees you offer and why your competitors cannot match your offers, then back them up. 5) Go above and beyond...do something extra that is unexpected, and do it for free. Does it cost you time and money...probably, but if you want to rake in the 5 star reviews, you need to do more than the bare minimum. For example, if you are a photographer and someone purchases the base package, toss in a few nice photoshoped images that is in a higher package. If you know what you're doing you can do this in 15-20 minutes, but it will mean so much to your customers. If you are doing outdoor shots, bring blankets to put on the ground, bring umbrella's for customers in case it rains, bring some drinks and snacks, and keep them healthy if they are bringing younger kids. Those are just some examples. 6) Follow up. If someone doesn't respond, I follow up a day later, then a couple of days after, then about a week after that. If I don't get a response I assume they were just shopping, but I'll follow up every 2-4 weeks saying something like, "Hi Joe! I see you have not flagged anybody as 'hired' for this project. I'm available and would be happy to help you with XYZ project. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail me, or call/text using the points of contact below." 7) Don't change your prices after there is an agreement. I had a customer recently that I quoted a full roof cleaning for although she had only requested a small portion to be cleaned facing the curb. She hired some other company and they came to do the work and did an excellent job on one section, then did no real work on the second section, and did a poor job of cleaning the gutters. With no warning of a price change, the two men demanded twice what they had quoted after the entire job was done, and being a woman faced with two men after the sun had gone down, she paid them what they asked. She then came back to me in a Thumbtack message and said after seeing the difference of the clean section against the rest of the roof that I was right that the entire roof needed to be cleaned. As soon as I read this I told her to call the bank and cancel the check and write another check for exactly what the original quote was. That is no way for a professional business to operate. If you are one of those companies that does operate like that, shame on you! 8) don't tell customers up front that you are "honest". When someone says that to me, I immediately feel like they are dishonest and are saying that as a sales tactic more than they are really honest. Saying you are honest isn't something you can quantify without time and effort. 9) Finally - Use the Golden Rule - treat others as you would want to be treated. Be polite. Don't use profanity. Smile, especially on the phone - it changes how you speak and the caller can pick up on this. Provide free information. Make customers feel like their best interests are your top concern, and make it your top concern. Sorry, it is late...I hope this makes some sense, and I hope you are able to take something away that is useful and able to help you achieve Top Pro status too!
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